Rugby World Cup 2016 - Opening Ceremony

Venue: Twickenham Stadium

Lighting Designer: Tim Routledge

Creative Director: Kim Gavin

Set Designer: Misty Buckley

Production: Donaldson Creative

Tim Routledge was called upon to design the lighting for the 2016 Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony at Twickenham Stadium. This dynamic opening ceremony was conceived by Kim Gavin and was warmly received by sports fans who got the excitement of an opening ceremony before the opening game but in short 20 minute wrapper that gave it pace and none of the slow pace of traditional ceremonies.

Tim worked closely with the sports presentation team who were installing lighting for the duration of the tournament to maximise bang for buck across both budgets. The rig was comparably small to traditonal ceremonies but with also utilising the stadiums new dimmable controllable flood lighting systems, large looks were achieved that could not have been achieved with traditional systems. With a very short rehearsal period onsite to minimise any damage to the pitch, the show was programmed using wysiwyg offline and then after rehearsals the lighting was updated overnight ready for the dress rehearsal onsite.